Categories

Advertising Mistake #18 – No Motivating Or Appealing Offer

The best purpose of advertising is to get people to respond. To make your phone ring. To have clients/customers/patients to drop by. To have qualified clients/customers/patients to respond to do business with you!

Every single business card, letter, post card, advertisement, flyer or report that you send out should be solely designed to get people to respond to you. It should always include an interesting story or appealing offer that motivates people to respond!

Don’t be content to just get your name and face in front of the public.

Sure, we’ve talked enough about why getting your name out there, isn’t worth anything. But any ad (even one with an interesting headline) that doesn’t give them an offer that they want will, most likely, not pull responses.

You’ll notice we always recommend to offer a “FREE report.”

Why a FREE report? Because that is what people want.

When prospects visit your website or your retail store, in most instances they are in the ‘looking zone’ and may not be ready to buy. They want more information, so they can make the best-informed decision possible.

You see, if your marketing gets their attention with a headline that draws them into the copy and the copy is interesting but ends with nothing, or a boring close, or says, “contact us for more information”, that’s not going to work.

We have found that offering a “FREE report” seems to be the easiest way to get people to respond because 1) it’s free and 2) it explains more about why they became curious with the headline and the ad to start with.

Usually FREE reports are in paper form or nowadays can be a downloadable pdf. However they can also be audio or even video.

These reports can be used with many different headlines and many different offers.

Whatever your market is, you will want to have headlines “smack ‘em up the side of the head”!

The offer has to be compelling and has to follow through on the curiosity that you have generated. You can’t just offer boring, self-centred things and expect them to respond to you. No, your offer must be something that they really want and they are interested in.

We have found there is nothing cheaper to produce than free information – free information which is compelling for people who want something. It is also very non threatening which is critical.

If you were in sales and you used an ad or mailer that offers a chance to talk to you, many people – even those who are interested – might not respond because they are afraid of having a pushy “salesperson” all over them and in their face.

(It doesn’t matter if you’re not that type of salesperson. There are so many who are that kind, and most people don’t want to subject themselves to high pressure. Particularly, if they are only mildly curious at this point. They’d rather take a pass on responding, than be subjected to a salesperson pestering or pressuring them).

Now, if you find a better offer than a FREE report, that’s great.

The point is, if you want maximum responses, you must have a curiosity-provoking, non-threatening offer!

Also, if you are in the retail business, don’t think that FREE reports are not for you. You can easily write a FREE report on the “Released At Last – The 10 Best Little Known Hideaway Restaurants in Perth”, if you were in that business.

Or, “10 Ways To A Great Pair Of Blue Jeans Without Spending A Lot Of Money”, if this was your business.

It doesn’t matter what business you are in, you can design a FREE report that will be of interest to your prospective clients/customers/patients.

The FREE reports are cheap and they start you off on the right foot.

So forget about offering a FREE consultation, or having people call you, or other things that reek of “Salesperson” horrors.

Always make an offer people want and you’ll get responses to your advertising.